Following in the footsteps of Explosions in the Sky, My Bloody Valentine, and Mogwai, Suffolk-based Under the Sun has been taking the aspects of shoegaze, post-rock, and electronica to the upper landscape of quintessential wonders. It is a solo project created by Matt Catling, who had founded Under the Sun during the pandemic in 2020. Recorded in late 2023 to spring of 2025, Slow Motion Water is a shade of a mysterious dream, sending you into the unknown with intense results.
Now for me, I had no idea on what to expect when I hit the play button on my iPod touch, but I knew it was going to be a journey that was about to send on a whole other form when the album begins. On ‘Dream’ he layers into this double-tracking reverb, going inside the drone-like attack of an insane person, ready to set an attack on anyone that comes near his way.
For ‘Precious’ we find Matt entering into not just the Hawkwind route from the Quark, Strangeness & Charm-era which channels the bolting ‘Spirit of the Age’ composition, channelling Robert Calvert, but The Cure during their post-punk years in the late ‘70s, early ‘80s. Layering the electronic train chug, insane spoken vocals, and hay-wiring arrangements that’ll make your jaw drop.
Throughout the ‘Summer’ and ‘Never Forget’ compositions, it almost as if the BBC Radiophonic workshop is doing an orientation of a trippy walk through by entering the worlds of Delia Derbyshire’s imagination whilst ‘The Outrun’ feels like a futuristic world set in the 30th century with its lo-fi industrial momentum. When I think of ‘A Midnight Odissey’ I think straight away of two bands and one artist from the krautrock movement; Cluster, Manuel Gottsching, and Faust. Not to mention bits of Lou Reed’s ‘Metal Machine Music’ thrown into the mix. That’s how much research Matt has poured his heart and soul into the composition.
Right from the get-go, Matt has done his source material well in his bedroom by honouring the genre and seeing the direction those two bands were ahead of their time and giving him the torch to carry their legacy into the new world. Under the Sun’s Slow Motion Water may take repeatable listens to delve into. It may not be everyone’s cup of tea, that’s understandable, but it takes a lot of patience and time in what Catling has captured on here to keep the post-rock and shoegaze genre, alive.
